They could get all of the Doctors through Tupac-style shenanigans. They could even do a fake out. Have all the Doctors trapped somewhere. A bunch of the companions could have to solve whatever problem arises. Then the 10th Doctor shows up to help. Only, after everything is over and the Doctors are freed the 10th Doctor who helped him was the clone that went with Rose.

If they can get Eccleston or Pertwee, then they will have accomplished something.

If they got Pertwee, that really would be an accomplishment, seeing he's been dead for 16 years...

I was going to say something to that effect.

It's been tradition to bring back all the earlier Doctor Whos on the anniversaries, but in this case it would be silly to have twelve characters (of which three actors are dead). Getting a few would be entertaining however. Paul McGann is obvious. Peter Davison seems to be required, seeing as how he's Tennant's father-in-law now.

This better not be for some lame-ass retrospective interview show with z-list comics and "media personalities" dropping their canned jokes against a green screen background in between clips. "Hey, let's see what Matt Mira has to say about Cybermen; it'll be a HOOT!"

Lernaeus:This better not be for some lame-ass retrospective interview show with z-list comics and "media personalities" dropping their canned jokes against a green screen background in between clips. "Hey, let's see what Matt Mira has to say about Cybermen; it'll be a HOOT!"

Lernaeus:This better not be for some lame-ass retrospective interview show with z-list comics and "media personalities" dropping their canned jokes against a green screen background in between clips. "Hey, let's see what Matt Mira has to say about Cybermen; it'll be a HOOT!"

But it probably will be.

I hate that he has penetrated the culture enough to even be name dropped like this. Even insultingly. Please let him never be spoken of again.

Mr_Juche:They could get all of the Doctors through Tupac-style shenanigans. They could even do a fake out. Have all the Doctors trapped somewhere. A bunch of the companions could have to solve whatever problem arises. Then the 10th Doctor shows up to help. Only, after everything is over and the Doctors are freed the 10th Doctor who helped him was the clone that went with Rose.

Mr_Juche:Lernaeus: This better not be for some lame-ass retrospective interview show with z-list comics and "media personalities" dropping their canned jokes against a green screen background in between clips. "Hey, let's see what Matt Mira has to say about Cybermen; it'll be a HOOT!"

But it probably will be.

I hate that he has penetrated the culture enough to even be name dropped like this. Even insultingly. Please let him never be spoken of again.

It'll be the last time, I swear.

Unless that guy somehow escapes Hardwick's orbit and becomes his own thing, at which point I'm going scorched earth on dick-waving fanboy culture.

It's my understanding that Eccleston disliked the behind-the-scenes crew during his tenure. (i.e. Russel T. Davies), it wouldn't surprise me to see his return.

/Though, in hindsight, I would say that the best chance for an Eleven + "previous incarnation" episode would have been The Rebel Flesh... rather than cloning the 11th Doctor, maybe they should have cloned a younger version of the First Doctor...

The Loaf:/Though, in hindsight, I would say that the best chance for an Eleven + "previous incarnation" episode would have been The Rebel Flesh... rather than cloning the 11th Doctor, maybe they should have cloned a younger version of the First Doctor...

Ha.There was a scene in that one where Flesh Doctor has his head in his hands, between his knees. Matt Smith's hair did a sort of front-facing spike thing due to gravity, and I thought for a second I was getting a 10 cameo.Would have made sense there too, if 10's personality really wasn't ready to go, and could assert itself over the newer persona of 11.

That scene was a perfect excuse for any cameo, really. As was the one where 11 asked for an interface and ultimately ended up with himself.

Badgers:Dwight_Yeast: ShawnDoc: Now get Tom Baker back and you've got something to be excited about.

The problem with Tom Baker now isn't that he wouldn't do it (I suspect he would) but that he looks more like the Doctor's Grandfather than the guy who regenerated in the early 1980s.

Former Time Lord Tom Baker will return to 'Doctor Who' to mark the show's 50th anniversary.

I'm hard.

And any easy way to explaining the aging of the previous Doctors:A) Ignore it, like they did on all the other X Doctor's episodesB) Pull the past incarnations from alternate timelines where that version of the Doctor was never forced to regenerate and continued to age.

5 Doctors - McCoy to Smith, bring back Sophie Aldred (if not all the other living companions that aren't at risk of brain melting), and use the thing as a backdoor pilot for "The Continuing Adventures of Dorothy Gale McShane"

ShawnDoc:Badgers: Dwight_Yeast: ShawnDoc: Now get Tom Baker back and you've got something to be excited about.

The problem with Tom Baker now isn't that he wouldn't do it (I suspect he would) but that he looks more like the Doctor's Grandfather than the guy who regenerated in the early 1980s.

Former Time Lord Tom Baker will return to 'Doctor Who' to mark the show's 50th anniversary.

I'm hard.

And any easy way to explaining the aging of the previous Doctors:A) Ignore it, like they did on all the other X Doctor's episodesB) Pull the past incarnations from alternate timelines where that version of the Doctor was never forced to regenerate and continued to age.

C)The Ten clone regenerated backwards and aged, since he's only half Time Lord.

I realize we have to limit the number of episodes that boil down to WHOOOOOAAAA HOLY SHIATBALLS CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY BROUGHT [Rose/a previous incarnation of the Doctor/some long-lost companion/that robot dog] BACK?!?!?!?. And I know that Tennant and Eccleston have other things they're doing now.

But it's a show about time travel. Why not the occasional episode starring a recently-previous Doctor? You'd turn on the TV expecting Matt Smith, the TARDIS would materialize on some random planet, and out comes... Christopher Eccleston. Well, why not? He did exist for a little while. Maybe we're seeing an episode about something that happened to him as foreshadowing for something that will happen to the current Doctor later in the season. It'd be fun, and you wouldn't even need to roll out some elaborate timey-wimey technobabble about how you can possibly be seeing the "wrong" doctor.

In other words, who says we have to watch the Doctor from the perspective of his personal timeline?

Although, as I type this out, I realize why they don't do it: most of the fun comes from the WTF moment of seeing the wrong guy, and internet spoilers would be impossible to avoid.

My thought for some time has been to re-use old footage of the earlier Doctors, somewhat along the lines of Babelcolour's The Ten Doctors. Combine that with the technique used waay back in the early 1990s (and thus presumably affordable today) in Forest Gump to dub in new dialogue and have them interact with the current cast.

Might only work for limited scenes, but it would let you have the original actor looking like they did when they originally played the part. Then all you'd have to do is fix their voice (Tom Baker sounds very different).

I'm of course assuming that CGI "youthening" of the actors is still prohibitively expensive, or at least too expensive to be convincing within budget.

Also, Frazer Hines (Jamie from the 2nd Doctor era) does a pretty brilliant Pat Troughton impression, he or David Troughton could do the second Doctor's voice. There's an actor who voiced Hartnell for a recent animated reconstruction of Planet of Giants who does a pretty respectable job too...

ShawnDoc:B) Pull the past incarnations from alternate timelines where that version of the Doctor was never forced to regenerate and continued to age.

I don't think that'd work. 11 spent around 200 or so years in between the first time he dropped off Amy and Rory at the end of series 6, before The Wedding of River Song and his "death." He didn't appear to have aged a day. Unless you consider his eyes. You could read his age and weariness in his eyes, and that was a fantastic bit of acting.

I've never gotten why Christopher Eccleston has been so adamant about his "I don't go back to the past" shtick when it comes to Doctor Who. Why the fark would the man take the role, somehow expecting that it would be proper or even possible to sever all ties to the role? Frankly it's a little insulting, and I think that mentality has something to do with the decline of his career in general over the years.

I love the guy's work, but sometimes he comes across as a bit of a dick in real life.

OniExpress:I've never gotten why Christopher Eccleston has been so adamant about his "I don't go back to the past" shtick when it comes to Doctor Who. Why the fark would the man take the role, somehow expecting that it would be proper or even possible to sever all ties to the role? Frankly it's a little insulting, and I think that mentality has something to do with the decline of his career in general over the years.

I love the guy's work, but sometimes he comes across as a bit of a dick in real life.

A bit of it was that the show header's didn't think that the new show would take off and told him not to risk anything more than a 1 year contract. By the time the contract came to an end, he'd already signed to other work, but now Who was a hit. He was contractually obligated to leave and well, Davies was intent on gaying up the doctor anyway. I'd be bitter as all hell about it all too.

gadian:A bit of it was that the show header's didn't think that the new show would take off and told him not to risk anything more than a 1 year contract. By the time the contract came to an end, he'd already signed to other work, but now Who was a hit. He was contractually obligated to leave and well, Davies was intent on gaying up the doctor anyway. I'd be bitter as all hell about it all too.

Meh to that. He knew that it was going to go one way or another, played it safe, and took other work. If he's bitter about not having taken the chance on a longer contract, he should say that he wishes that he'd had a longer contract or one that had a write-in for renewal. Stepping into interviews and talking about how you'd never go back because of some psudo-artistic reasoning is nonsense, whether it's what one actually thinks or is a backhanded way of being bitter. And, frankly, his career on paper isn't good enough that he can make statements like that and try to successfully hold to them as personal policy.

He's a good actor. It's annoying to see him shooting his career in the foot.

I personally think the 50th anniversary would be a great time to show the Time War and the regeneration of 8 into 9. The Doctor's guilt burden from this has been a recurring theme throughout "New Who" but we've never actually seen it. Not sure how 10 would factor into this plan, though...